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Recently, my mother had a minor outpatient surgery. She was told she needed one day of recovery at home before being back on her feet. She was sent home with 30 prescription opioids. For one day of recovery, she was given a month’s-worth.

It is inconceivable to believe that this is happening every day here in Tennessee, especially to those uneducated on the risks of opioid addiction.

It is time we stop this epidemic from taking the lives of those in our communities -- our coworkers, our neighbors, and those we love. In 2016, 72 percent of drug overdoses in Shelby County were opioid-related.

The rise of opioid addiction and subsequent deaths across the nation has officially been dubbed as an epidemic. It is widespread and growing. It is no longer an inconceivable myth that a pain reliever prescribed by a doctor could lead you into the throws of addiction, or even more so towards an overdose. That curtain has been drawn.

We now know that 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. We now know that a driving factor in the 15-year increase in opioid-related deaths is from prescription opioid overdoses. We know that this epidemic costs our economy $78.5 billion each year.

At the end of October, my fellow Shelby County Board of Commissioners and I made the proactive effort to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit against offending pharmaceutical companies for their pivotal role in Shelby County’s and the nation's opioid crisis.

We must determine how much of our tax dollars are spent each day as a result of this crisis. Big Pharma has a major responsibility in this, and we must seek legal redress to protect our citizens.

It has been suggested that in order to counter this opioid crisis, taxes should be increased on Shelby County citizens. This is not something I support. It is not fair to our taxpayers to pay for their neighbors’ overdoses and deaths while the pharmaceutical companies benefit from them.

I support what is best for the people, and having these companies pay for the epidemic they created is only
fair and right.

There has been much back and forth in the media on the politics of this decision, focusing on whether the commission had the right to hire a law firm, or whether it should have continued to
wait for Mayor Mark Luttrell to take action.

As legislators, we were elected by our constituents to act on their behalf, to protect them, and that is just what we did.

Mayor Luttrell has had multiple opportunities to take action during this increasingly prevalent crisis, and each time he has chosen to do nothing.

I am thankful for Mayor Luttrell’s years of service, but in this case, he fell short of his responsibilities. I am a firm believer in a collaborative form of government, one that upholds checks and balances.

When one part of government doesn’t act to protect the people, the other branches must act. I stand by my decision to file suit and protect the rights of Shelby County citizens.